“Uh… Sloan,” her mom said next to her. When Sloan looked she saw her mom holding a blue card. “This is your credit card.”
“It can’t be.” She jerked it from her mom’s hand and turned it over, studying it. Sure enough. It was hers. The only one she had. “That can’t be right. I didn’t use it.” Her eyes found Aaron’s. “I promise I didn’t.”
The look he gave her broke her heart. It was confusion, hurt, frustration, and most of all, sadness. He honestly thought she’d done it.
Scared, she focused on Ray. He shook his head and stared at the card in her hand in shock. “It has to be a mistake. Someone could have stolen it and put it back in there, right?”
“Right,” Sloan agreed, hoping someone else would.
“When?” Aaron asked.
“I don’t know, but someone had to,” Ray answered.
The older brother ran his fingers though his hair and let out a frustrated breath. “Okay. I think we need to talk about this. Not here because it was a bad idea to do this now. I admit it. I made a mistake.”
Sloan never thought she’d hear him admit it. Sad that it had to do with her sanity.
He kept on talking. “How about we meet back up at your house after you and Ray get out of school? We can go over everything. All the facts. Something is going on, and we need to get to the bottom of it.” He took the two steps toward Sloan quickly. When he grabbed her hands, her first instinct was to pull away. Looking into his eyes, she couldn’t. She wanted to be mad at him for thinking she’d sent the flowers to herself. She wanted to blame him for everything and focus on that instead of the facts. The facts were her credit card had been used and it was still in her purse.
She couldn’t pull away from him, though. No matter what, she needed him. She needed him to hold her and tell her the truth. Aaron never sugarcoated things with her. Honest to a fault at times, which was odd since he was supposed to be the bad-boy brother.
Aaron bent down so his eyes were level with hers. “We’ll figure this out, Sloan. I promise. We’ll take care of you.” He bent over and kissed her cheek.
For a few brief seconds, she felt like everything was going to be okay. The few seconds didn’t last long.
THE FUZZY FEELING SHE had grown accustomed to didn’t let up when Aaron and her mom left. Before they had, things had gotten a little less tense. Aaron had taken Ray aside, and they’d seemed to have a civil, if strained, conversation. Her mother had kept her occupied, talking about the store. Such a weird thing to think about when her life was spiraling out of control, literally falling from under her. But she’d listened to her mother talk. It actually had been nice to think about something else for five minutes. It would have been nice if it had lasted longer.
They had asked if she felt like staying the rest of the day. She’d lied and said she did. What was she going to do? Go home and mope the rest of the day? Besides, she’d miss too much if she skipped school. Too many tests tomorrow since there would be no school on Friday for the prom.
Prom.
Something she did not want to go to.
That wasn’t true. On one level, she wanted to go to prom. As a senior, it was one of those moments they say must be experienced. And she had the dress, so she was ready.
But she wasn’t ready for the predetermined weirdness between her and Ray. And she definitely wasn’t ready to find out what would happen at the end of the countdown.
After lunch, Ray piled both of their trays on his. Neither had eaten very much. She didn’t have much of an appetite here lately, and especially not after what Aaron had discovered. They walked into the school building together, but Sloan felt so far away.
A bed would be nice.
A nice nap to end the day.
“I don’t know why I’m so sleepy all the time.” She wiped the tiredness from her eyes. “I’m sick of it.”
“Could be stress,” Ray said without looking at her.
Could be. She’d heard that stress made a person tired, and she’d had her share of it. They put their trays up in the cafeteria. Sloan looked, but Mackenzie had already gone. She’d have to text her about the powwow going on at her house this evening. Mackenzie was her best friend and needed to know if everyone else did. Plus, maybe she got something out of Travis Blaylock’s cousin, Sarah. It seemed so strange for his cousin to just be there out of the blue. Sloan prayed Mackenzie had an answer that was better than what Aaron had gotten.
Ray walked Sloan to her locker. “Oh man!” he said and hit his palm against the locker next to hers. It wasn’t loud, but it definitely got her attention.
“What?”
“I forgot a pencil, and I need it for my next class. I think I left it in third period.”
She smiled despite herself. “Fine. Grab one out of my bag.”